"Flexibility is the key to moving forward."
Pallavi Agarwal is the founder of Kander, a Salesforce consulting firm in Washington DC. Her passion is finding ways to help clients determine their true path and identify the technology which can be the vehicle to achieve the north star through strategic implementations and project management.
She believes that it’s about the business process and understanding the “why” of the user experience and customers to really drive the business outcomes for clients. She has over 15 years of management consulting experience. She enjoys traveling, snowboarding, hiking, and biking.
She is also passionate about mentoring women in the community for personal and career growth and leads the DC Admin Salesforce group.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Pallavi Agarwal: My name is Pallavi Agarwal and I am the Founder and CEO of Kander Consult, a boutique Salesforce consulting firm in Washington DC. Originally from India, I grew up in the DC area, where I attended the University of Maryland, College Park. I got into technology consulting right out of college at a time when she didn’t even know what software was. I spent years supporting and advising Federal sector clients and Fortune 500 brands on complex and custom global technology solutions before founding Kander in 2018.
Kander, a spin-off from the word Candor, which means “the quality of being open and honest in expression or frankness,” is a boutique firm by design comprised of senior-level experts from across the world. We provide clients with personalized solutions and an unmatched experience dealing with sophisticated projects ranging from technology implementations to business transformations. As a Salesforce partner, Kander helps clients with systems integrations, software migration, and custom app development.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Pallavi Agarwal: If 2020-2021 taught us anything, it is that we need to be flexible, we can’t forget about the human factor, and we need to allow room for grace. The old way of thinking, “business is business, personal is personal,” is no longer true. Companies need to look at each individual as a human being and work on meeting them where they are.
On the operations side of things, companies need to have a scalable infrastructure in place that provides support and allows their staff to stay connected in a remote. So how can we continue to communicate, be impactful, and have the “water cooler” talk in a virtual environment?
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Pallavi Agarwal: Make sure you have the infrastructure to support your business growth, a culture to support your people, and introduce flexibility. Flexibility is the key to moving forward.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Pallavi Agarwal: The pandemic shifted the technology mindset of many companies. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become more significant since the pandemic. Companies are now leaning more on technology and technology infrastructure and looking for better ways to meet their customers where they are. Getting a holistic 360° view of their customer and scaling with tools such as Salesforce has become critical.
This is at the core of Kander’s business. We are not only a Salesforce implementation partner, but internally we rely on tools such as Salesforce to manage our day-to-day. Having these tools in place and remaining flexible with our team, partners, and clients have allowed us to meet various needs and shifting priorities.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Pallavi Agarwal: The advice I wish I received is that the lines between personal and business are now blurred. We are in everyone’s home with virtual meetings, so making it ok to bring in the human factor to the work environment.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Pallavi Agarwal: I expect this surge to come down in 2022. People miss face-to-face interactions. Online-virtual is not going away, but as the world continues to get vaccinated and people are more comfortable being out, it will be a mix of both online and in-person.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Pallavi Agarwal: The time in front of a screen has significantly increased since the pandemic. Before, you had commute time and breaks in your day, but now that is not always the case. On average, I spend 15-16hrs a day in front of a screen.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Pallavi Agarwal: Our primary way to connect internally and externally is by sharing stories people can relate to. When we speak to a potential client looking to implement Salesforce, we tie back to real-life examples and related stories they can understand. Internally, we may all have different backgrounds, but there are many shared experiences that we used to connect.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Pallavi Agarwal: The market is saturated with boutique firms doing Salesforce consulting. The challenge I see for clients is filtering through all this information to make informed decisions. Many are not informed on what to look for when choosing a consulting partner and end up with a partner that is not a good fit.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Pallavi Agarwal: I am interested in learning more about NTFs. Where is the NFT market going? And want to understand them and see what the potential is there.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Pallavi Agarwal: Yes, most leaders feel this way, including myself, and this is why there is this great resignation. Leaders tend to focus on their initiatives and lose track of the people. A company is nothing without its people. Leaders need to be more self-aware and create a culture where you have open and honest conversations. And take that feedback and apply it to how you lead your team each and every day.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Pallavi Agarwal: Read people’s minds. Many people expect that from me, so would be nice to actually have that ability.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Pallavi Agarwal: On a personal level, success is having our team feel empowered to do what needs to be done for the client without my involvement, allowing me to take back some of my time. On the business side, success is growing our presence in the Salesforce ecosystem as a Salesforce consulting firm, increasing our presence in a way that only attracts clients to work with us but also where people see what we are doing and want to work at Kander.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Pallavi Agarwal for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Pallavi Agarwal or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
